Women’s Hockey: No. 9 Terriers suffer weekend sweep to rival No. 4 Northeastern

By Daniel Multz

After 120 minutes of competitive play, the Boston University Terriers (5-3-1, 2-3-1 WHEA) fell 2-1 and 2-0 to the Northeastern Huskies (7-1-0, 4-1-0 WHEA) in a weekend series between the two rivals.

Friday’s game at Walter Brown Arena got off to a scoreless start through one period. The second period got off to a strong start for the Terriers as freshman forward Julia Nearis scored a power play goal, her fourth goal of the season, six minutes in to put BU up 1-0.

Nearis’ freshman season is off to a great start and head coach Brian Durocher knows the kind of impact she has had on the ice. “She sees the game, she’s got very good hands, makes hockey plays but can also score goals. She’ll make the necessary play to finish and put the puck away,” Durocher said.

Once the third period came around, Northeastern’s offense was silenced no more as junior defender Brooke Hobson tied the game up 1-1 on a power play goal just 55 seconds into the period. Ten minutes later, sophomore Mia Brown gave the Huskies the 2-1 lead and that would be the final.

“I though we came out of the gate pretty well in the first period,” Durocher said. “[Northeastern] came back hard and got two goals in the third period . . . I feel like we kind of lost our way, lost our direction, got held in our zone.”

On Saturday, the scene shifted to Northeastern’s Matthews Arena for round two of the season series. After fifteen minutes of action where both teams racked up the shots, junior Tessa Ward sneaked a shot through traffic to put the Huskies up 1-0.

Later on in the second, junior Veronika Pettey slapped a pass from Assistant Captain Matti Hartman into the net to put the Huskies up 2-0. That would turn out to be the final as Northeastern sealed the weekend sweep. Despite BU’s edge in shots on goal in yesterday’s game, they struggled all game even after pulling Schroeder in the final minutes to score a goal.

The Terriers and Huskies had a very aggressive, competitive weekend with the two squads accruing 14 total minor penalties over the weekend. Both teams gave it their all but in the end the Huskies walked away with the two victories. “Both teams competed real hard and played real hard,” Durocher said.

Over the weekend, Terrier goalie Corrine Schroeder racked up over 50 saves and allowed only two goals in each game. Durocher said she was “ready to play over there at Matthews. She made enough great saves that gave us a chance to get a win, but it’s hard to do that when you don’t get that goal.”

Next weekend, the Terriers will face another difficult road matchup against conference-rival Providence while Northeastern will remain at home as rival Holy Cross heads to Matthews Arena to face the Huskies

BU may have suffered the weekend sweep, but Durocher is confident his team can rebound and be ready to face Providence next weekend. “It’s a long season and you have to put things behind you,” Durocher said. “I like the way they played today, I like the way they competed.”